Japan stocks higher at close of trade; Nikkei 225 up 0.26%

Investing.com – Japan stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the , and sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Tokyo, the added 0.26%.

The best performers of the session on the were Aeon Co., Ltd. (TYO:), which rose 2.70% or 70.00 points to trade at 2,664.00 at the close. Meanwhile, Kyowa Kirin Co Ltd (TYO:) added 2.46% or 73.00 points to end at 3,040.00 and Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd. (TYO:) was up 2.14% or 99.00 points to 4,719.00 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. (TYO:), which fell 2.06% or 10.40 points to trade at 495.00 at the close. Konica Minolta, Inc. (TYO:) declined 1.99% or 11.00 points to end at 542.00 and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. (TYO:) was down 1.95% or 10.00 points to 504.00.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Tokyo Stock Exchange by 1867 to 1644 and 309 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was down 0.77% to 16.77.

Crude oil for May delivery was down 0.01% or 0.01 to $83.25 a barrel. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Brent oil for delivery in June fell 0.11% or 0.10 to hit $87.23 a barrel, while the June Gold Futures contract rose 0.66% or 13.45 to trade at $2,038.35 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was down 0.03% to 133.09, while EUR/JPY rose 0.06% to 146.38.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.04% at 101.13.